Haslingden Grane set in the heart of East Lancashire has now become a very popular area and is so beautiful that it is often called "Little Scotland". It once was the home to illicit whisky distillers. We have three large Reservoirs, Calf Hey, Ogden and Holden Wood, and there are other popular places within Grane and its surrounding areas such as Fairy Glen, Troy Quarry,or just a little further afield there is the Camms....Musbury Valley or the Alden Valley...

Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Stoney Rake

Got a tip off today at 1400hrs that Redwings from the East are entering the Country in their thousands at Spurn (Nr. Hull) and making their way West... So went to my favourite Thrush Passage station at Stoney Rake... None going through, winds pretty strong.... but thinks they chose a different route or maybe theyve dropped for feeding up......took some of photos etc... Photo 1 is bottom end of Stoney Rake where it meets with Calf Hey Road 2) is Fungi Shaggy Scalycap (Pholiota squarrosa) which is growing on rotten decideous tree which can be seen in the centre photo below. 3) A long shot of Ogden taken from on the top of Stoney Rake. 4) The rotten tree stump which shows the Shaggy Scalycap. 5) is Vermillion Waxcap (Hygrocybe miniata) found in meadow just yards from the rotten tree stump shown here...

Grane host some beautiful butterflies and probably the rarest of them all is the small Green Hairstreak (see photo below) which thrives around here especially on the Musbury Heights Crowberry cover. Also there is the Gatekeeper, Comma, Common Blue, Wall Brown amongst the many. But also we have the more common species including Peacock, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Small Tortoiseshell.

Grane is also rich in birdlife, and there are now over 167 different species which have been recorded over the last 100 years, the majority of these have only been visitors to the Grane, and also there are a few of the records which are quite ancient with species (long extinct from the Grane) eg: Stone Curlew, Corncrake, Quail, Nightjar, Rough Legged Buzzard etc.. However the Grane can still boast to have at least 78 different breeding species...

WARNING: That all identifications are given in good faith, but are based only on the “macro” (i.e. visible) features of the fungi, lichen or other matter in question, and have not been verified by microscopy, or professional mycologists.

Also, I would like to stress that persons should NEVER ever, eat any fungi, unless they are personally certain that their particular fungus is edible. Many people have been poisoned (sometimes fatally) by eating fungi after getting their identifications wrong.

Racomitrium aquaticum found at Top O'th Knoll 2) Polytrichum piliferum found at Hutch Bank and throughout Grane Photo 1, Photo 2.Ulota crispa . Thanks to Peter Jepson (Ecologist) for supplying the following which have been found on Haslingden and Oswaldtwistle Moors: (Sphagnum capillifolium subsp. rubellum) Red Bog-moss

From approx mid-October to early November I usually do vismig watches "visible migration of birds going through the Grane Valley which includes many species, but in particular we usually get good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing and also large numbers of continental Chaffinches and Brambling. For these watches I tend to be at Stoney Rake and here are photos of the various views from that watchpoint... click here

All photographs have been taken from within the confines of Grane and its surrounding areas. I have taken most of the photos on my Fuji Finepix A204, up until the end of December 2008, but since January 2009, I have used a bridge camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28, but would also like to thank other contributions listed below.

Grateful Contributions - THANK YOU

Arlene Harris for great photos of Moths.

Charles Payne for some great Grane photos and for his tremendous help and support with everything.

Jackie Ramsbottom, for help with old photos and info.

Photokid for great photo of Wren.

Mike Valentine for some really superb Grane photos. Mike uses a Fuji Finepix S9600 (9.1Mp). Bridge Camera. And also uses a small Manfrotto mini-tripod. From 16th June 2009 Mike as also used a Nikon D80 with a Sigma 180mm macro lens. Also for his great assistance with identifications of both flora and fungi.

Ina for help with Moth identifications.

Peter Jepson (Ecologist) for help with Mosses found on Haslingden and Oswaldtwistle Moors.

26th Mar 2009 addedA New photo kindly given by Jackie Ramsbottom, showing the Calf Hey Reservoir also empty during the 1990s...

Feedback

Hi,

Just came across your sites. Although I have put in searches for Grane etc before, I only came on it by accident as it is listed as a nature site. My Maternal ancestors had the Wellington from at least 1881-1901 and my Paternal ancestors were in Grane from about 1866. My Granny went to school and Chapel there and later my Mother as a child lived there. So, as you can imagine, the pictures were a wonderful find.

Well done on a wonderful historic site and thank you for all your hard work in producing it.